Kayla (upon being woken up at the crack of dawn): This is a time when you want to call your parents and say, "I'm SORRY!!!"
Dylan: Oh, I've always wanted this!!! (a toothpaste dispenser for the bathroom)
I'm doing a scrapbook of my weight loss, and in this layout I show my "before" picture of November 2008, when I weighed 239 pounds. The "after" picture is May 1, weighing 207 pounds, a loss of 32 pounds. I'm hoping to get down to 199 by the end of May. My first goal is to lose 60 pounds, which would be 179. After that - well, I'd actually like to lose another 50, but first I'm just going after the 60. The thing that I'm proudest of is that I was going through a breakup and usually that's when I give up and go to the fridge and the wine bottle for comfort. But not this time! I'm determined to show that I'm stronger than that - I will NOT let a man sabotage my health again!
And here's yet another scrapbook layout featuring my great-niece Bailey. Can I help it if she's so photogenic?
Dr. Seuss' birthday was March 2009, and Thriftway held a party for kids in his honor. They listened to stories and watched a puppet show and also a juggler performed. They loved it! I thought it was so neat that these kids who watch cartoons and play video games still liked this old-fashioned form of entertainment.
My great-niece, Bailey, celebrated her first birthday while I was visting in Florida. Her grandma Judy had as much fun as she did, teaching her "proper cake-eating" etiquette.
.JPG)
Dr. Seuss's birthday was February 2, and Thriftway sponsored a special Dr. Seuss party for kids. I took Dylan, and he just loved it! There was stories read and an old-fashioned puppet show. I couldn't believe how much all the kids laughed and enjoyed it - I'm sure Dylan isn't the only one who plays with video games and all kinds of sophisticated gadgets -- but they acted like this was the biggest treat they had ever had! Dylan and I took the bus to the store and we really enjoyed being together.
I
did this layout from my vacation, it's pictures in my dad's backyard, which I just love! It has such a tropical feel to it. I printed the pix on my computer, but I'm running out of ink, so they didn't show up as they should. When I get the prints back from the photo place, I'll replace them, and hopefully, the layout will show how pretty the backyard is.
Well, I lost a couple more of my Florida pounds! I went for a walk and stuck to the Spark diet, so that did the trick! I'm almost back to what I was when I left for Florida. If I'm lucky and work really hard, maybe I'll get to my January weight goal!
Mike is supposed to bring the girls over today. I have some stuff from Florida for them and also Lynzi's birthday presents from Valerie and me. I'm thinking of asking him if I can go home with him and spend the night. I'd like to get away for the night. I don't understand why Rick kind of "shuts down" on me at times, but I guess it's one of those things I have to just take. He's done this a few times before,so maybe it's just something in him. I just have to hope he's not falling out of love with me. I love him, and it would hurt so much to lose him. Even though we've never met in real life.
Miles and Kayla asked me to stay, rent-free, so I'm going to try it for awhile. But if we start fighting again, I'll still leave. If they had to pay a babysitter, it would be more than the rent I was paying, so I think I'm earning my keep. But I'm not going to spend the last years of my life miserable. I'm going to try to make some changes. Kayla's right about me making a hermit of myself, maybe that's why she doesn't respect me. So I'm going to try to spend the night at Mike's once in awhile to have time with the girls. When Kayla is around, everything is controlled by her, and I want to feel comfortable with the girls. They're growing up, and I want to know them as well as I do Dylan. Also, if I keep more active, maybe I won't be so prone to "suffocate" Rick.
This is the photo Valerie and I had taken at Sears the same time we had our group photo. It's terrible of me, I really look old and fat. But Valerie looks pretty, doesn't she? I sent a copy to Rick, and he said it was a good picture, but I think he was just being nice. And last night, he signed off without saying anything. I hate it when he does that, I never know why - did he get booted? He had said earlier that he was going to go offline to do some searches, but I don't know why he signed off without saying anything. We've been getting along so good, I don't understand. Was he that turned off by my picture? Maybe I should ask him.
On the brighter side, I did lose almost 3 pounds back of the 6 pounds I gained in Florida. So I'm not going to let my depression send me into a tailspin. I've been depressed ever since I got back from Florida, and this doesn't help.
Today, I don't have any money, but I'm going to at least go for a walk to get out of the house. And do some scrapping, I need to do one layout a day to meet my quota. Scrapping always helps me get over the blues.
Well, I made it back! I'm feeling kind of sad, because it was so nice to be with my family. I got to spend a lot of time with them, and it's so nice and laid-back in Florida. Dad is feeling so much better, and I got to know my half-brother Donnie a lot better. This picture is the family picture we had taken while we were there. I'm so glad we got it done, and dad and Carla paid for it all - which we hadn't planned on, but it was so nice of them.
One thing I'm going to try to do now is try to make myself get out more, instead of staying in the house all the time. So every morning, I'm going to post to my blog and make a plan to do something - even it's only to go to the store or take Dylan to the park.
Today, I'll start out with going to the store.
Here I am with dad in his backyard. We were sitting outside in front of their open fire they have. It was really nice. Pictured below is Valerie with dad - they had a really nice chat together, which was what she wanted. It's been a really nice visit, and in a lot of ways, I'll hate to go back. But I do miss my family. I feel recharged now, ready to get back to my own place. Kayla and Miles seem to want me to stay, and since they aren't asking for rent now, I may go ahead and try it. I guess I'll see how things go. I don't get my Social Security until July, so I'll wait until then to decide for sure. I'm going to have a long talk with Miles about it.
+of+DSC00705.JPG)
Dylan watches as President Obama took the oath of office. He didn't really know what was going on, but I wanted a picture of him at this moment. He'll grow up and not think it's a big deal for a black man to be president. And that's a good thing!
However, the day wasn't a good one for our family. Kayla was taken to the ER with an ectopic pregnancy. It had burst inside of her, so she went through some serious surgery. She'll be coming home today, and her mother is coming to be with her. That will help her. They'll have to tell Dylan that the baby is gone, and that's going to be hard. But he'll be okay, even though he'll be upset at first. I just hope Kayla doesn't go into too much detail with him.
I did tell Kayla that it's not impossible to have another baby if she wants one, even though they did take one of her tubes. My neice Lisa had an ectopic pregnancy and she had another baby after that. But Kayla has had two miscarriages before she had Dylan, so she might not want to try again.
Caught in the act - sleeping it off - even Dylan, who was allowed to stay up for New Year's Eve with me and was up for the fireworks. Miles and Kayla took Valerie out to the American Legion, and must have had a pretty good time, to judge by how tired they were in these pictures!
I 
found a website that will project a I weight loss. Here I am, my actual before picture and my virtual after 50-pound loss picture. Now here's something to motivate me. I'll have to check out if I really look like if - I mean WHEN - I lose 50 pounds!
